Presque Isle Park Rangers

A crew of dedicated park rangers keep those who Presque Isle State Park safe.<br>

Hundreds
of thousands of people will visit PresqueIsleState Park
this summer.

A
crew of dedicated park rangers keeps all those people safe.

It's
another day on the job for the 16 PresqueIslePark
rangers who patrol the park 24/7 all summer long.

Assistant
Park Manager Charlie Meade says, �Visitor service is our main philosophy. people
come here for the first time they want to know where the beaches are where you
can swim where the best place is to swim,�

But
it's not all fun in the sun - being a ranger on Presque Isle is part customer
service, part cop.

�Our
rangers all went to police academy; we're all considered police officers for a
city of the first class, so most of us went to State Police Academy,� says
Meade.

That�s
something a lot of people learn when they get a speeding ticket� but the hordes
of summer tourists bring more serious problems too, from an exploding car Memorial
Day weekend to some very worried parents.

"We
have occasional missing person or missing child. Nine times they went to the concession
stand or went to the bathroom and didn't tell their parents,� Meade says.

But
those are the exception not the rule.

Most
of the time everything is just like it should be, thanks to the park rangers
who keep Erie�s crown jewel safe
and pristine all summer long.

Meade
says, "We're not here to give people tickets - we're here to educate
people the best we can our philosophy is we want to educate people, we don�t
want to give them fines for doing this and fines for doing that."